Who said resolutions were only for January?

I want humility to invade my parenting! For me, this means I own my weaknesses, hear what my kids are saying and show them I need Jesus. I want to be the one modeling this for my kiddos. It not only gives power to our family, but also gives power to them in their relationships with others.

I’m the only parent at home this week, which means I can’t blame anyone else but myself for what’s going on in our house. For example, when my kiddos say, “Why do we have to say please all the time and you never do? It’s like we are your slaves!” I’m the only parent here, so they have to be talking about me. How often I brush these things aside and think he must be seeing it wrong or she must be talking about something her dad said.

As God and I move deeper into this, I’m going to use this post from Mark Forstrom and resolve to treat my kids differently. In this post he gives 50 Parenting Resolutions for teens. I’ve picked 10 and am going to write them out and put them around my house.

Here are the ones I chose, but you can pick whichever ones God is pushing you toward as we discover more about putting others first by giving up what we think we deserve.

Parenting Resolutions:

1. Resolved: to give you as much freedom and as many choices as you prove capable of handling.
2. Resolved: to allow you to pursue your own suitable interests and hobbies.
3. Resolved: to never compare you to other people’s kids.
4. Resolved: to speak honestly, straightforwardly, and privately to you about any concerns I have — avoiding sarcasm, inferences, subtle hints, nagging, over generalizations, labeling, venting and triangulation.
5. Resolved: not to expect your very best all the time but rather that which is reasonable for the moment, knowing that no one (myself included) can give 100% simultaneously to every area of life.
6. Resolved: to say, “Yes,” every time I can and to only say, “No,” when necessary.
7. Resolved: to say, “Please” and “Thank You,” extending you the same courtesy I would appreciate from you.
8. Resolved: to acknowledge your feelings even when they may not seem sensible to me.
9. Resolved: to be willing to admit when I’m wrong and be quick to apologize when needed.
10. Resolved: to give you clear instructions on what I expect from you.